Blackstone Audio is proud to present the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s brilliant production of Shakespeare’s disturbing and psychologically rich masterpiece Hamlet. Whether you’re a Hamlet scholar or being exposed to this work for the first time, this stunning work of audio theater, fully dramatized with performances by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival cast, is a must-listen.

In Denmark a king is dead. His brother, Claudius, has snatched the throne, and the widowed queen, yet life goes on—for everyone but Prince Hamlet. The prince, fixated on his uncle as the murderer, is charged by his father’s ghost to avenge the wrong. Disconnected from the foul world around him, Hamlet strains under the weight of his task, descending into madness, both real and feigned.

Quotes & Awards

“Crackles with a contemporary energy, while still casting the sort of cold, eerie light on human experience that has made it history’s most celebrated play. Hip-hop’s just a small, though potent, part of the thrilling whole.”

Oregonian on the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s theatrical production of Hamlet

“The phenomenon of Hamlet, the prince without the play, is unsurpassed in the West’s imaginative literature.”

Harold Bloom

A 2011 Grammy Award Nominee for Best Spoken Word Album

Listener Opinions

Michael Castro | 2/3/2014

" "Hamlet" was an interesting drama to read. With all the twists and turns, this book will keep you reading on, waiting for the next exciting thing to happen. "Hamlet" is about a Prince of Denmark named Hamlet, whose father suddenly passes away due to a snake bite. That's what it seems at least, until a paranormal encounter leaves Hamlet to believe that his father had been murdered. Struggling between trying to cope with everything that is happening in his life, and getting revenge for his father, leaves the readers questioning his sanity, and makes them read on. I would definitely recommend this play to someone who likes Middle English and dramatic stories. "

Robyn Cox | 1/26/2014

" Possibly one of the best written plays in existence. However, that being said, sometime I just wish I could tell Hamlet to stop whining and waffling about and just effing do something. Therefore this gets a 4 out of 5 as opposed to a 5 out of 5. "

Julia | 1/23/2014

" Not my favorite Shakespearean work, as far as theme and plot goes, but it has moments of great lingual beauty and is masterfully crafted. To give it anything less than four stars would be to shame it, although it may not be to my personal tastes. "

Sheila | 1/22/2014

" Delving into Shakespeare, to see how much I remember from being first exposed to this in High School. "

Peter Conti | 1/17/2014

" My favorite work ever. The 19 year old goes from "to be or not to be" to a 30 year old who wants to "let it be." "

Rachael | 1/17/2014

" The story is basically Lion King with more interesting characters - what is not to like?! "

Andalee | 1/7/2014

" Hamlet was probably one of the better plays. "

Johanna | 1/5/2014

" I actually really loved this story. I watched the stage production, where David Tennant plays Hamlet and read along a bit. I really, really loved it and it made me cry. "

Mary | 1/1/2014

" It's Shakespeare, some of his best. What else can I say? "

Jodie Quesnel | 12/30/2013

" i hated it.. to long to complicated "

Julia | 12/30/2013

" Not my favorite Shakespearean work, as far as theme and plot goes, but it has moments of great lingual beauty and is masterfully crafted. To give it anything less than four stars would be to shame it, although it may not be to my personal tastes. "

Olga | 12/30/2013

" I don't like the end of this book "

Reader | 12/30/2013

" "Hamlet" is awesome! I enjoyed reading it even more than I expected. Still, since it is a play it is of course also meant to be performed. I found that when studying "Hamlet" as a text, it was helpful and fun to watch different film adaptations, at the very least of some select scenes. So much has been written about this book over the years by people far more scholarly than I, so I will not write much more here, other than to say that this play is brilliant, thoroughly enjoyable, and made me want to go and read some more Shakespeare. I would recommend this play. "

Francis Sinatra | 12/26/2013

" The greatest thing ever written. "

Amy Wolf | 12/20/2013

" I have to say that the good Prince's indecision frustrates me, but his brooding ruminations on life are so powerful that the play as a whole is magnificent. Would love to see it live with a worthy actor. "

Ms. Luker | 12/14/2013

" Just finished not only reading this, but also teaching with it. Loads of discussion, even though many of the students struggled with understanding the text. Supplemented with scenes from four movies... "

Jessica Canyon | 12/7/2013

" Like many Shakespearian plays one can always say there was something they liked in, me on the other hand I always find that I hardly remember the details of Hamlet- in my opinion it wasnt the best play but it was still a good one. "

Denise | 12/1/2013

" Good plot line- don't know why I waited all these years to read this. "

Victoria Edwards | 11/28/2013

" My favourite play by Shakespeare. I love this intelligent, unpredictable character, though I was unimpressed with the frailty of Ophelia and the stupidity of the Queen. "

Brittany Sanford | 11/15/2013

" Read in high school. Didn't care for it. "

April | 11/13/2013

" Hey, murder, ghosts, sword-fighting, suicide, royalty, actors... what more would you like? And so quotable, too? The original, gothy emo aristo boy! So full of WIN! "

Carrie Felton | 11/5/2013

" I actually liked Hamlet this time around. It was much better when i analyzed it as i was going through. "

Jovana MarinkoviÄ‡ | 10/10/2013

" Life is shit and then you die. "

Adrianna | 9/19/2013

" This is probably my favorite sheakesperian play! It is so sad that no one makes a performs this well anymore. "

Ivan Lopez | 6/26/2013

" Very difficult to understand for me. "

Allyson Capetta | 4/5/2013

" By far Shakespeare's greatest triumph. "

Cosme Lozano | 2/15/2013

" I really liked this book because it has a lot of things that made me think, there is a lot of treason and dead that made me feel like wow! jaja "

" Hamlet is one of the epic tragedies of William Shakespeare. Retold time and time again through the generations, Hamlet is truly a classic. "

Kristin | 8/31/2012

" This was SUCH a good play. I didn't enjoy Romeo and Juliet at all, but this had a different flavor to it, if you will. I got more attached to these characters and I liked the plot. It was a nice tragedy (well I mean like as nice as a tragedy can get, you know). "

Trayche | 8/22/2012

" I think that this is my favorite classic book. :) I'm so glad I had a chance to read it. "

Scott | 6/25/2012

" What can I say that hasn't already been said? Beautiful, haunting, funny at times, it's earned its place as Shakespeare's best. I prefer Henry IV, Part I or Titus Andronicus, honestly, but this is damned good. "

Claire | 4/25/2012

" I re-read this for my Great Works project. Just read Shakespeare to know all that the English language can be. "

Asia Fountain | 4/9/2012

" I completely loved this! Hamlet was so...I can't even put it into words. "

Ash Srinivas | 1/1/2012

" My favorite of all of Shakespeare's works. "

Nata | 8/29/2011

" Good for Shakespeare and interesting insight on Hamlet's conflicts. However, as always with Shakespeare, language is difficult and plot is a somewhat dull at times. "

J. Guapster | 8/22/2011

" The PBS film with Patrick Stewart is outstanding. Available to watch for free whenever you want. "

Evangeline | 5/22/2011

" Very handy to have around to refer to, if i was to buy individual copies of all his works it would be costly and take up far too much space. Alhough of course i still like to buy special copies of my favourites.
"

K. | 5/18/2011

" I haven't read everything in it, obviously, and the 5 stars is mostly because...well, the book has everything Shakespeare and I bought it at a used-book store four years ago, in mint condish, for 20 bucks. If that doesn't deserve a 5, right off the bat, I don't know what does. Bargain.
"

Ben | 5/1/2011

" Believe it or not, I have read them all O.o
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Mandy | 4/19/2011

" Didn't read the whole thing of course....but this is the edition I used in college. Very nice annotated edition, however it's a bit bulky. ;-) I kept it, because really, how much is Shakespeare going to change when my kid takes it in college?
"

Becky | 4/14/2011

" The college class I took on Shakespeare's work really cracked it open for me. Knowledge definitely enhances appreciation when it comes to the Bard. This single-volume text includes everything he's written, with annotations. Over 2,000 tissue-thin pages. I just want to pet it.
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Jeremy | 3/10/2011

" What do I think well? It one of the greatest books I've read and still reading. I know that I will continue to read it.
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" It is not my intent to review the Riverside. There are several well-wrought "complete works." But nobody even comes close to William Shakespeare of Stratford.
"

Lori | 2/17/2011

" Whether or not you believe that one man named William Shakespeare wrote these plays, it cannot be denied that they are greatly enjoyable on their own and have influenced countless other works of art throughout the ages.
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Christina | 2/10/2011

" Worth the investment- all of his major and minor tragedies, comedies, histories and romances- plus sonnets. Our professor had made us get a version similar to this one (not leather bound). We read a good portion of it but you can only just scratch the surface with Shakespeare.
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Katie | 2/10/2011

" I particularly like this annotated edition. Particular attention is paid to both language and historical context.
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Other Titles by William Shakespeare:

About the Author

William Shakespeare (1564–1616), English poet and dramatist of the Elizabethan and early Jacobean period, is the most widely known author in all of English literature and often considered the greatest. He was an active member of a theater company for at least twenty years, during which time he wrote many great plays. Plays were not prized as literature at the time, and Shakespeare was not widely read until the middle of the eighteenth century, when a great upsurge of interest in his works began that continues today.

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